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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 17:41:50 GMT -5
((New Thread))
"Steinþór Óðinsson." Stefán said. "If you have any idea where he might be -" He sighed. "I tracked him down to Norway, but the last listed owner didn't give me the next step to find him. Either he's dead or charmed himself out of slavery. But no Icelander or Icer has seen him."
Aron guarded his knight with a bishop, hoping that she would not risk losing her own bishop.
Marisa giggled. "I'm already planning where to have the wedding, so you know the answer already." She rubbed against him. "Yes, I will marry you."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 17:56:05 GMT -5
Zoe took out a PDA and noted the information down. "Thank you, Stefan. Are there any other questions?"
Rachel looked over the board for a solid minute while she considered her current options. Losing another bishop wasn't in her plan at this point. Her other knight, however, was in a position to put Aron's bishop in check with the next move. Then she would almost certainly lose it, but then it would put Aron's king wide open to her rook. She made the move. If worst came to worst, she'd still have one knight left.
Jeffrey returned the cheek-rub. "Is it where I think it's going to be?"
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 18:05:04 GMT -5
"What is her name?" Stefán asked, though he figured he would not hear her given name.
Aron went for a stalling tactic as checking Rachel's king with his idle rook.
"Where would you like to have it?" Marisa asked.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 18:20:33 GMT -5
"We don't know her given name, not even she does. She is known as "Babel". Zoe answered.
Rachel didn't worry excessively about getting her king in check, even though it looked pretty bad. After some prolonged thought and position-crunching, she finally moved her bishop once again, knocking out Aron's rook. Her queen was still beyond any one move of Aron's and semi-guarded.
"Besides the airport, there is some lovely parkland not far from Auckland that Laurie was telling me about." Jeffrey suggested. "Not too many people living close by, so we wouldn't be disturbing too many. On the other side, the airport is accessible to everyone."
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 18:37:08 GMT -5
"I didn't think it was her." Stefán said. Babel was known as a part of the political puzzle box of the Caliphate, being always in attendance of meetings. "That simplifies a bit. I was going to compensate you the price if you had bought her." He smiled slightly. "But I doubt you did that, given that she never had a price tag to begin with."
"If she is who I think it is, daughter of Steinþór, her real name is Elísabet Steinþórsdóttir. Steinþór's wife died a year after she got sold to the Caliphate, died of an illness."
Aron went back to the position of a defensive snarling dog, lining his knight for a kill for Rachel's knight, while also guarding it with a bishop.
"There are not too many people living near the airport either." Marisa said. "I guess it would depend on if we want it to be public or not."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 18:54:51 GMT -5
"No, we don't participate in any aspect of human or sapient traffic." Zoe shook her head. She was taking the additional information down. "I will take this information to Babel, and see if she wishes to meet with you."
"With this event, the question is not as much "public or not?" as it will be "how public?" Bree sighed. "You better believe that what passes for the local media will be all over it."
Rachel now found herself with an interesting tangle to unravel. Aron, she knew, was dug in good and would make her pay dearly for any advancing move she made now. Her king was safe for the moment, but she was now faced with a question: Which piece do I now sacrifice? Because of Aron's bishop, she could not move her knight against Aron's directly, but she could move it out of reach and provide additional guards for her king, with her queen still safe in the farther corner of the board. She chose that option.
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 19:17:20 GMT -5
With Rachel seemingly unwilling to sacrifice more pieces, Aron launched the start of series of moves that would take him across the table while keeping his aimable pieces guarded.
"So you have intentions to intervene?" Stefán asked.
"So we have to do some crowd control after all." Marisa said.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 19:34:20 GMT -5
"It's been a difficult process to build up trust with the people who are working with her now." Zoe explained. "She will almost certainly search you for ulterior motives or wonder if you've got some agenda going. I know that you don't have any I haven't already inferred from you, but it will need some patience."
Rachel evaluated the game as it was currently going. Let him think she was hesitant to sacrifice pieces... her tactic was to feint defensiveness and let him advance... then she would make moves. She saw that his knight was now within reach of her bishop... and struck.
"The rest of us would probably be happy to help with that." Bree said. "We can have a cordon and an invitation list for the area where it actually takes place, which won't stop the gawkers from gathering outside, but it won't turn into a circus either."
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 19:50:53 GMT -5
"I have to say that there will be an ulterior motive." Stefán said. "Babel has been our holy grail so to speak. Out of our reach, but if we would finally get her, we would be announcing to the world that we are attempting to get back all Icers. We may not have a country anymore, but we need a ground to stand on."
That was to be expected. Aron thought as taking her bishop. He didn't have many pieces left, and noticed had only one left of everything. There went the hope of an easier queen kill. Now he needed to break though her defenses with what he had left.
Aron needed to remove few pieces on the board to force zugzwang on Rachel. The first piece he had to get rid of was the queen, so he set up carefully to bait her.
"And that we can sniff out who belongs and who doesn't." Marisa said.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 20:38:44 GMT -5
"Then you'll have to ask her if she wants to be a symbol." Zoe reached out to pat one of the wolfbikes that sought her attention. "Like I am becoming whether I want to be or not. You wouldn't believe how many expat Canadians are coming out of the woodwork and sending me letters or messages through the hams. I can't promise you anything on her behalf, Stefan, but I can ask her if she wishes to see you."
Rachel, anticipating Aron's move on her queen, thought that she might counter-bait Aron, and took the option of moving her queen back. That would force him to bring more of his pieces into check-range if he wanted to pursue it.
"By now, that's pretty well-known of us." Bree laughed. "So I don't think we're going to have somebody's obnoxious uncle sticking his face in. But the periphery is going to be a different matter."
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 20:57:15 GMT -5
Aron studied the table for a while and saw that he could do an zugzwang in four moves, but it relied on Rachel not detecting it. At least he first move was geared on moving a knight back into a position where it would guard advancing bishop.
"I guess that you are not of this world." Stefán said, though he had come to that conclusion a while ago. He was interested in speaking with Zoe, though it would not involve Babel most of the time. The interest was platonic, as he had gained considerable interest in the supernatural and magic after having near lethal altercation with an Elf few years before the blowup.
"No Uncle Fester." Marisa smirked. "I actually got one with that name in my family, and with the same self-destructive personality to match."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 21:40:39 GMT -5
"Oh, really?" Bree smirked. "How is he still alive, then?" "Self-destructive" and "helicopter" did not go together well, even in the carsverse.
"I am one of them." Zoe's sweeping gesture, accentuated by her Argentinian-style poncho, encompassed the frigate at dock, Casey, the three helos and the several cars that were about. "The real me stands twenty feet tall at the crest of the canopy and weighs some thirty tons. You can see why I'd rather use some other shape in this location."
Rachel smelled a rat. She was aware of the zugswang tactic, and Aron trying to box her into one. She pondered the retreating and guarding knight, and figured that if it was going to happen for her, she would have to do it in the next two moves. She wasn't yet ready to risk her queen, but she still had one of everything else, even a pawn. A late pawn sacrifice might do it, aiming to draw out and set up Aron's knight. She took it.
By now, a small crowd had gathered around the shack.
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 22:03:40 GMT -5
"I have no idea how he survived few of his adventures." Marisa said. "My mom said it was like he knew his boundaries much better than anyone else. Some medical university wanted to study him to see if he had any unique body metal mixture that made him more resistant to whatever beating he gave himself. Didn't find anything out of the ordinary."
"So I guess you are not a supernatural entity like a Nykur, but a mage that can do things like that." Stefán said, in reference of that she said she was one of the CV residents.
Aron spent another minute. He had overlooked that, and now his own knight was in danger, who was important to bait the queen. He didn't need him for the zugswang, but the queen would easily mop the floor.
But he was able to kill the queen in two plays. He put the bishop in a position where they could kill each other, the knight guarding it. If Rachel would kill the knight, bishop would get the queen, if queen would kill the bishop, knight would get the queen.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 22:16:25 GMT -5
Rachel studied the situation through her retinal interface. The Queen may eventually fall, but by Chrylser, it'll cost you! She looked at the pieces she had left - the royals, the bishop, the knight, the rook. The only one that could now move without losing the queen was her bishop, if she was prepared to lose it. So be it... let the bishop be her guard, and take the hit.
"Or else he was just lucky. That's always a possibility." Bree shrugged. "All right, you two... let's see about getting this thing going."
Off to the side, Jessica and Mairi were observing.
"Something like that," Zoe nodded. "Though each of our "mages" has one talent that stands out. Mine is shifting."
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 22:31:21 GMT -5
Aron made a tally of his own pieces, rook, knights, bishop, king and a pawn at the fifth rank that was blissfully ignored.
I may be dying here, but I intend to go down committing arson on her pieces. He thought to himself as taking the queen.
Marisa was practically beaming. Jeffrey had actually managed to surprise her with the question. She had known it was coming, but just not then. She looked at the two humans observing. "Jeffrey popped the question, and we're going to have the ceremony here." She said as waving a blade. "Know anyone local that can do it?"
"Ah, sorry." Stefán said. "I must be confusing you with mythology from back home. I was pretty big local supernatural buff when I was a teen."
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